sentence ought not to be commuted to life imprisonment. But in light of the principle laid down in Dagdu (supra), we have afforded adequate and sufficient opportunity to the appellant to place all the relevant materials on record before us. 27. In Shatrughna Baban Meshram (supra), 67 judgments of the Supreme Court in the previous 40 years were surveyed wherein death sentence had been imposed by the trial court or the High Court for the alleged offences under Sections 376 and 302 of the Code, and where the age of victims was below 16 years. It was noticed that: “35.1. Out of these 67 cases, this Court affirmed the award of death sentence to the accused in 15 cases. In three (at Sl. Nos. 26-A, 33-A and 41-A) out of said 15 cases, the death sentence was commuted to life sentence by this Court in review petitions. Out of remaining 12 cases, in two cases (where review petitions were heard in open court in terms of law laid down in Mohd. Arif v. Supreme Court of India), namely, in cases at Sl. Nos. 51-A and 65-A, the death sentence was confirmed by this Court and the review petitions were dismissed. Thus, as on date, the death sentence stands confirmed in 12 out of 67 cases where the principal offences allegedly committed were under Sections 376 and 302 IPC and where the victims were aged about 16 years or below. 35.2. Out of these 67 cases, at least in 51 cases the victims were aged below 12 years. In 12 out of those 51 cases, the death sentence was initially awarded. However, in 3 cases (at Sl. Nos. 26-A, 33-A and 41-A) the death sentence was commuted to life sentence in review.” It appears from the above data that low age of the victim has not been considered as the only or sufficient factor by this Court Criminal Appeal Nos. 1473-1474 of 2017 Page 26 of 30